Here is a story that I heard recently that changed the course of the greatest battle of all time, I thought you might like to hear about it.

It’s said that the soldiers in this battle lined up on either side of the valley facing each other, with the open plains between them. Uncountable numbers of foot soldiers, and thousands of officers on horses. The foot soldiers led the line, with the officers behind riding up and down keeping order and relaying the commands from the handful of generals that stayed close to the king on the higher ground.

The king would come down sometimes riding back and forth behind the lines, and he could be heard saying to his generals “how well they were presented”, mighty warriors in full battle dress, trained, battle hardened full-on soldiers, “victory” he said “was assured”.

As he neared the end of one of the lines and was preparing to turn around and make another pass, his attention was drawn to the supplies and first-aid tents where the lazy conscripts would often hide out.

​There crouched down he could just make out behind one of the tents, a pair of scruffy looking scallywags playing a stringed instrument and singing.

The king was furious at this dereliction of duty, He glared at his general that was responsible for this regiment, that general signalled to the officer in charge of the unit, and ordered him to bring the little toads directly to him. The angry officer grabbed the two young reservists by the scruff of their necks, and marched them strait over to the king.

”You boy” said the general closest to the king, glaring strait at the slightly less pathetic looking of the two boys, “get in line over there” pointing strait at the biggest fiercest soldiers around, obviously a punishment. “And you boy” looking at the weedier of the two, “you will take this order to the kings general on the other side of that hill”."Me sir” “Yes you boy, your so small the king believes you may, with a bit of luck, get across the plain to the hill without being seen.

Written on this note are the “king’s new orders for that regiment”.

The boy knew he wasn’t being asked, this was a command.

He went on “that regiment has some of the king’s finest soldiers, and these orders arevery important, so make sure they get there safely and as fast as a flying arrow, and you put them in the hand of the general there, guard them with your life”.

The boy didn’t likethe sound of that, he wasn’t as brave as his friend. As he turned to go the king said to him in a calm voice, “have no fear son, my message will get through”.

The king knew that the terrain was mainly flatlands, with grass so tall it would come up to the waist of most of his soldiers, slowing them down so they would become easy targets for the enemy.But this short athletic boy could run and hishead would barely be seen above the top of the grass, for him getting across theplains quickly without being seen, was more than a possibility.

This boy never saw himself as a soldier, he was not a confident boy, he never imagined he would ever have to fight, let alone carry "important orders" for the King. However he headed out in the direction he was ordered. ​"Have no fear" that's easy for you to say, he thought to himself.

He trotted along unsure of the dangers that lay ahead, he had never seen the king before, let alone carry his orders, and here he was being sent on a special assignment.

As the boy approached the beginning of the plain he could see that there was a troop of enemy soldiers riding right across his intended path. He thought to himself, I think I’ll stay here for a while and keep my head down until the danger passes, forgetting all about his orders to be as fast as a flying arrow.

I should make a run for it now he thought, so much time has passed. But just at that second He thought he heard yet more danger coming from somewhere out on the plain.I think I’ll stay right here for a little longer until I am sure it is safe for me.After what seemed like ages he began to remember the importance of his orders. He wasn’t a brave sort of lad, and following orders had never been high up on his priorities,especially if it involved any kind of danger to himself.

Anyway, eventually he figured that there would never be a good time to make a brake from his cover, so he got up to his feet and without even looking, just ran as hard as he could like a rabbit across the plain towardsthe hill on the other side, where he hoped he would find the kings general and his men.

With his heart pounding in his chest, he eventually reached the other side, and climbed the hill.

His king had been right, he had been able to reach the other side safely and meet up with the other regiment.

With relief he pushed his way between the legs of these towering mighty soldiers and thought to himself, my king was right these are the finest soldiers in the army.

As he pushed his way through he eventually found himself at the generals own camp. The general’s officers were all around him now, and the boy knew they were all staring at him. What is this little toad doing inside the perimeter of the general’s camp, they couldn’t hide their thoughts, the boy knew what they were thinking. However he drew in a deep breath and walked up to the general and handed him the message the king had entrusted to him.

Reading the note the general looked puzzled.

Calling over his closest officers and advisers he said “well I don’t know men, I have here in my hand a message that supposedly has been sent by our king” bewildered he went on, it says "we must abandon our strategies and plans that we have been following all this time, and instead of fighting the enemy to take the hill, that hill that we have shed blood and tears trying to take for so long, and instead, give it up and focus our energies and forces on the ‘barren valley’ to the south. Yes that’s right the same ‘barren valley’ that we know from past experience and cost is not worth fighting for. The dryness and the wilderness of it takes such a heavy toll on our resources, last time it costs us too many men, horses and supplies, and what’s more we know it has very limited tactical advantages”.

Meanwhile the little messenger boy didn’t know what to say, he could only look on hoping they wouldn’t get angry with him. It wasn’t his message he thought to himself, why are they looking at me like that?

“The king has lost his mind” said one officer, “He’s getting old” said another. “What does he know, we’re the ones that’s here, we know the battle, what does he know” said another.

“Does the King know how hard we have fought to take the hill” said the general looking directly at the boy.

Oh my gosh, he thought to himself, why didn’t I stay in the long grass under cover where I was safe.

﻿Their eyes narrowed, the boy was scared now. “How do we know this message is even from our king”? said a mean looking officer.

“This could easily be a trap, this could bring the whole army down” he said.“He’s right” said another. ”He could have been sent from the enemy camp, we know how slippery and scheming our enemy can be”.

Good heavens the boy thought remembering what his friend had told him, the words rang now in his ears ...“Only rumours” he’d said “of other messengers who had mysteriously disappeared after they had arrived at the front line and delivered their message”, was I going to disappear, he thought.

﻿

Just then the wise general said “I will retire to my tent and examine more closely this order on my own, taking more time and care to see if we are missing something, maybe there is a hidden meaningthat we have not seen”. The wise general left them all standing there shouting and arguing, and retiredto his tent with the message gripped in his big fist.

He sat down at his table staring at the message in front of him. He thought to himself, I know my king, and I trust my king, he is the wisest of all kings, and in all the years I have served him, he has never let us down.He stood up and walked to the door, he pulled the door-cover back a little and peered out examining the messenger boy. He saw him standing there helpless surrounded by his towering officers, scruffy looking insignificant urchin, he thought. He can hardly lift a sword, never mind use one; he represented, He thought to himself, everything that is wrong in the army today.

Yet there he is, standing there in the middle of my finest men being ridiculed.Why he wondered, why would my King use him?Not much of a messenger to carry such an important message he thought to himself.However, it wouldn’t have been the first time I have been surprised by the choice of my king’s messengers.I remember oh so vividly in previous campaigns, when I have listened and been influenced by my officers youthful wailings, and put the impostor to the sword, only to find out afterwards that he was indeed my kings messenger. This time I will be certain, absolutely certain before I spill his blood.

The wise general decided that his love and trust for his king was so great, that it warranted a much closer examination of the message that lay stretched out on his table.

As the general lowered his tent door and turned away from the heckling going on outside, he felt alone, like everything was on his shoulders. He slowly walked back to the table, the same table that had been used by all the generals before him. It was his table now, and he was stood in front of it, just as his officers had done a thousand times before to receive their orders from him.

He could see the message on the table, but not so clearly, his eyes were heavy and tired now, it had been a long day. It was facing away from him now towards his own chair on the opposite side of the table, he tried to focus on it, even though he knew it was up-side-down, but he was so tired it didn’t seem to matter.

………

And that’s when it happened.……………….

Every hair on his body stood up on end, like bolt of electricity had shot right through him,

“GOOD LORD” he shouted at the top of his voice.

His officers all came rushing in “what is it sir, what’s the matter”?

“LOOK” he said pointing at the up-side-down message on the table, like he was seeing a dead man rising to his feet in front of their very eyes.

“HALLELUJAH, HALLELUJAH praise our King, He is awesome” He yelled from the deepest depths of his whole being.

Then they all looked, puzzled at first, then one of them began to see, and another, and then another.Everything fell silent for a moment, and then someone started to laugh, and then someone else, and then one by one they all began to laugh, the whole tent erupted into hysterical laughter, they laughed like they had never laughed before. One of the officers, the one with the mean face was laughing so much he fell through the tent door landing in a heap outside, laughing so much, tears of joy were rolling down his face.

The messenger boy smiled and headed back to his position in the ranks along-side his fellow foot soldiers, happy now and gladly falling back in line under his old familiar officers.

The message that the messenger boy brought was ‘up-side-down’ to the logic and common understanding of the generals of the day, because the importance of taking the 'The Barren Valley' (unity) had been vastly underestimated by the generals. But as always, their KING DID KNOW BEST